Heat Vision is reporting that Paramount has secured the rights to the intriguing historical steampunk graphic novel Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel with J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot set to produce. Boilerplate tells the story of the world’s first mechanical man—an enigmatic, lone prototype designed for combat first unveiled in 1893— through a series of meticulously researched and Photoshopped historical images and accompanying exposition.
Paul Guinan’s creation began as part of a faux-historical website that he created in 2000 to pitch a graphic novel, and it gained notoriety when it became an unintentional hoax, as misinformed visitors and even some historians interpreted the images as authentic. Last October, Guinan and his wife Anina Bennett co-authored the Boilerplate graphic novel/coffee table book, further chronicling the mechanical man’s adventures fighting alongside Lawrence of Arabia and trekking to Antarctica. Let the inevitable Keanu Reeves casting rumors comfort you like the proverbial passing of the seasons.